Comments on: Why surveys suck

By: ProjectVRM Blog » Making surveys unnecessary

ProjectVRM Blog » Making surveys unnecessary — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:16:26 +0000

[...] almost going on two years since I wrote Why Surveys Suck. They still do. Case in point: Sirius, the satellite radio company. Last December, Mike Elgen in [...]

By: ProjectVRM Blog » What’s completely screwed about this picture

ProjectVRM Blog » What’s completely screwed about this picture — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:12:08 +0000

[...] “Hey, I’m busy, but I like Forbes, and I’m inclined to cooperate, even if I hate most surveys and would rather relate to Forbes in a less one-sided and impersonal way. So I punched on [...]

By: Zandora

Zandora — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:34:27 +0000

Surveys are a nightmare for me everywhere you go someone is wanting you to complete this or that survey. The company I work for gages your work on these stupied surveys. You go into this (HUGE Company ) not knowing if you are going to have a job when you leave based on a survey that some mono tone person has called no doubt agravated to be grilled about how their service was today. God forbid they give you a 8 on a scale of 1-10 . 8’s are unacceptable which puts a target on your head like a bulls eye. Your threathen with all kinds of stuff . My job is based on me getting a 9 or 10 on a survey not on my ability to perform my job. How fair is this I tell you When I get surved I give the highest score so some hard working doesnt get a penalty or loss their job because they have some 10 bosses on her back . People if we hate the surveys and the companys who demand them just give the poor reps 10’s or the highest score you can to keep the Amercians employed . I think we should protest these stupied surveys and start basing a employee on the job they do not if a customer has a bad day and hates your company. I cant help half the USA hates your company its not your employees its your GREED>

By: Doc Searls

Doc Searls — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:42:42 +0000

Agreed, Kurt.

One grace of English is that it’s an open, inclusive, adaptive language. It grows like a snowball. Thanks to that grace, suckage is now a word.

By: Kurt Davis

Kurt Davis — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:13:37 +0000

“First of all, suckage is not a word.”

What is that trash? “Astronaut” was not a word until it was a word. We all understand what Olivier is saying…why get nasty about the syntax; it dilutes anything else you have to say when you do so.

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:01:48 +0000

First of all, suckage is not a word. Omitting combinations of letters that are not words might be one start to improving your surveys, to say nothing of your sentences. Quantitiative surveys are the only “correct” way to listen to customers? What about focus groups? Non-qualitative and not measured by some collection of “scaled” variables. Certainly a valid way to get information from consumers you would never get from a droll quantitative survey.

Too often marketing people throw in a lot of unrelated survey questions they are interested in, but which have little relevance to the issue being studied at hand. This is especially true in claims work, and it can be very damaging to the claim.

By: Olivier

Olivier — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:59:07 +0000

Dear Doc,

Many market researchers like myself have read the Cluetrain Manifesto and really value your opinion. While I agree that there are too many poorly designed surveys out there, I also believe that quantitative surveys might be the only scalable way to listen “correctly” to customers. I say scalable, because it would be hypocritical to pretend having authentic conversations with millions of customers. Of course it is important to listen to the blogosphere and other social media, but spontaneous insights from volunteers (bloggers) do not always represent the majority of what customers think, hence the need to use statistical samples of customers in quantitative surveys in addition.

So, here is my question: what could we do to reduce our “survey suckage”?

Respectfully,
Olivier

By: Leake Little

Leake Little — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:32:12 +0000

I understand your reticence about surveys in general – and specifically in the context of the SAP Web 2.0 survey to which you responded.

Though I respect everyone involved it does seem that many are running to the far walls of a big room in this discussion. Surveys – in any direction – are not inherently good or bad. They are tools. Even among surveying techniques there are many variations from discussion guides to focus groups to quantitative methods.

There are definitely asymmetric relations in any question and answer framework. Usually its as simple as the fact that power accretes to the one asking the questions! As Bertil points out above the quality of the exchange is as much about the quality of the questions and the purpose of the surveyor as about the success or failure of unequal power relationships.

But I would have to agree that inexperienced surveyors protected by a large power imbalance tend to produce poorly designed surveys more often. There should be a license to survey.

By: Dean Landolt » Blog Archive » A survey that doesn’t suck…

Dean Landolt » Blog Archive » A survey that doesn’t suck… — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:34:20 +0000

[...] Searls (hater of surveys), in response to an SAP survey: Web 2.0 is what we’ll call the next [...]

By: Doc Searls

Doc Searls — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:33:52 +0000

That’s excellent cricicism, and very informative. Thanks.

Do you think poorly designed and performed surveys are themselves symptoms of asymmetric relations frameworks?